


Happy families are all alike

by ShariDeschain



Category: Iron Fist (TV)
Genre: Dysfunctional Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-07 05:37:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17954579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShariDeschain/pseuds/ShariDeschain
Summary: “You and Joy are my family”, Danny repeats stubbornly, and Ward wants to laugh in his face.





	Happy families are all alike

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Все счастливые семьи…](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19951174) by [Greenmusik](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Greenmusik/pseuds/Greenmusik)



“You and Joy are my family”, Danny repeats stubbornly, and Ward wants to laugh in his face. A long, hard, throaty laughter, the kind that makes people shift uncomfortably on their feet before asking _are you okay?_ even when it should be clear to anyone with functioning eyes that the word _okay_ left the building a long, long time ago.

But that would be weakness, and Ward can not be weak. Broken, yes. On the edge of hysteria, sure. Weak, no. It’s all about priorities.

“No Danny, we’re not”, he answers slowly, as composed as ever in his tailored Armani suit, and the contrast between him and Danny’s angry eyes and clenched fists and… whatever it is that he’s wearing, is almost too ridiculous to conceive. But despite what his not-brother may think, he’s not being cruel or unkind, and he’s not trying to hurthim. Ward’s actually trying to _protect_ him.

Because _family_ in the Meachum’s dictionary is not a nice word. Family means Harold. Family means Joy. And he loves his sister as much as he hates his father, which means _a lot_ \- more than his own life, although, to be fair, there are a lot of things that Ward loves more than his own life, scotch and drugs coming both in the first place. But he loves Joy more than that too, more than the scotch, and maybe just a little less than the drugs. So, you know, _a lot_.

But, again, in the Meachum’s household _love_ is in the same column of _family_. It’s a bad column. Nobody in their right mind should want to be put there. Of course Danny’s mind is quite a bad column of its own, but that, at least, is not Ward’s problem anymore.

He wants to say something else. He wants to say _you don’t understand_ and _we’re not who you think we are_ and _jesus h. christ kid, are you really this dense or are you just testing my patience for fun_. He wants to explain, but he doesn’t find the words to define himself, or Joy, or their relationship. As for Harold, god, even a library full of psychiatric books doesn’t have enough words to explain Harold Meachum.

“Why not?”, Danny asks, and he looks so unjustly hurt, like a child or a kicked puppy, and Ward remembers that look from the days of their childhood, when he would tease him or hurt him for no reason at all if not to satisfy his need to make someone else suffer too.

“ _Why not?”_ , Ward repeats, and this time he does laugh, and he reaches out to cup Danny’s face into his hands, squishing his cheeks enough to make him frown, and for a moment, but just one, Ward almost hopes Danny would react like a normal person, he almost wishes to be yelled at, to be hit and bruised and hated, because that’s what families do, and if Danny could do that, then maybe he could be Ward’s family too, since he wants it so badly. 

But the whole point of Danny has always been that he’s different from them. Danny’s always lived in the sun - and in recent times amongst monks, apparently, but Ward’s not going to touch that with a ten foot pole. He is the golden son, the heir, the one with the normal, happy family. And yes, his family’s dead now, but that’s just a detail. An aggravating circumstance of the Rand vs Meachum case, because, as far as Ward’s concerned, two dead parents are a lot better than one dead parent and one living asshole. 

“Why not, you ask? Because _I don’t want you_ to be my family”, Ward answers, sneering at the new rush of hurt blooming on Danny’s face. It feels good to be cruel sometimes. Maybe that’s why his father likes it so much. Maybe cruelty is one of the genetic traits they share. “Joy doesn’t want you to be her family either. How can you not see that? She has me, and I have her, and we’re happy like this, we are already a family, and you… you’re nothing to us, nothing at all. Understood?”

The speech leaves him breathless, and for a moment they stand there, one of them wheezing and gasping for air, the other compositely calm, and it is funny how it took just a moment to reverse their positions like this.

Then Danny grabs his wrists and moves them away from his face with a gentle but very firm gesture, and Ward has the clear impression that if he were to try and break Danny's grip he would not succeed.

“You’re my brother”, Danny says with the tone of someone who has taken a decision, and he stares at him with a steady, self-confident look that makes Ward wants to start screaming again. “I love you, and I love Joy, and if I have to win your love back that’s exactly what I’m going to do, no matter the cost.”

Ward takes a step back, rubs his hands on his face and chuckles wearily.

“The cost would be too high even for a billionaire to pay”, he tells him, and this time the edge in his voice doesn’t hold cutting sarcasm or defensive lies, but just the cold, deadpan truth. And Danny, somehow, seems to sense that.

“It will be worth it”, he answers, and he smiles a wide, bright smile that tugs at Ward’s memories and at his heartstrings because it’s the smile they used to share as kids, long, long time ago, when the days were easier and the nights less scary. He misses those days. He’s missed Danny. He still misses him, even now that he’s standing in front of him, because somewhere deep down he’s always believed that things would have been easier for him, if only he were given the chance to grow up with Danny by his side. But a wish is a wish is a wish.

“Get the fuck out of my office”, Ward grumbles, hiding his face into his hands again and wishing very hard for a whole bottle of scotch to pour down directly into his bloodstream, and even if he can’t see him anymore he can swear that Danny’s grinning again, just like the idiotic, optimistic moron he is.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the COWT @ landedifandom, prompt _Happy families are all alike_


End file.
